You can implement it, yes; you can't change the design
or adapt the specification. They gave up no rights;
they don't charge you to implement it. Quite. And
it isn't submitted as a specification for all to
comment on, change, or otherwise dink with. Java
is an even more restricted case. Of course, if Java were
submitted to the W3C as a specification candidate,
would the Java programmers be happy about that?
Interestingly, both Adobe and Sun make the same
case for not doing that; they say that they can
maintain and evolve it better than open standards
groups can. So maybe some fundamental Internet
technologies are better handled as proprietary
applications?
len
-----Original Message-----
From: Elliotte Rusty Harold [mailto:elharo@metalab.unc.edu]
At 12:43 PM -0600 1/17/03, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>As for market amplification, that's hard to predict.
>Why hasn't Adobe given up the rights to PDF
They have. PDF is freely implementable, and is in fact freely implemented.